Afghan Insurgents Strike Across Nation

Embassies, Parliament and Military Bases Are Hit in Kabul

KABUL—Heavily armed insurgents staged attacks in Kabul and across Afghanistan on Sunday, in their largest assault on the capital since the Taliban were ousted from power more than a decade ago.

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An Afghan soldier looks on as a NATO helicopter flies over the site of an attack in Jalalabad Sunday.
Reuters

The attacks on foreign embassies, Parliament and military bases in Kabul unfolded in rapid succession, halting normal life in the city. Gunfire and explosions, which emptied the streets during a normally busy workday, continued into the night. More than 14 hours after the attacks began, the U.S.-led military called in helicopter gunships to target holdout insurgents in two Kabul buildings as the fighting raged until dawn Monday.

The coordinated violence in Kabul and the eastern cities of Gardez, Jalalabad and Pul-i-Alam, marked the first significant salvo from the Taliban insurgency this year as it tries to derail American plans to transfer responsibility for protecting the country to Afghan forces over the next two years.

"This is our new tactic and is indicative of our strength," said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. "These attacks show that we are capable of launching major attacks and also show that there is cooperation with us from inside the government."

While the Taliban took responsibility for Sunday's violence, which Mr. Mujahid called the opening salvo in this year's spring offensive, Western officials in Kabul said the coordinated strikes were most likely the work of the Haqqani network, an autonomous part of the Taliban movement that has been accused of staging the most devastating attacks on the Afghan capital in recent years.

"My guess, based on previous experience here is that this was [the] Haqqani network operation out of North Waziristan and Pakistan tribal areas," U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said on CNN.

Gunmen Attack Embassies in Afghan Capital

U.S. defense officials said they didn't want to play down the strikes, acknowledging they were relatively sophisticated and involved multiple, coordinated attacks. But at the same time, officials stressed that the attacks were ultimately unsuccessful.

"It is an attention grabber, but it was not a game changer," said a senior defense official.

While the attacks appeared to fall short of delivering significant casualties, they may have succeeded in sending a message that the insurgency can still strike in the very heart of the country, said Martine van Biljert, co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, an independent Kabul-based think tank.

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Afghan special forces carried a wounded colleague after a gun battle near the Afghan parliament in Kabul, Monday. Associated Press

"It's really aimed at the war of perceptions," she said. "You try to start the fighting season with a bang and wipe away the claims that the Taliban haven't been able to pull off their major offensive. It's much more symbolic than tactical."

Two Afghan police officers were killed and at least 14 were injured during the attacks, Afghan officials said, along with 27 Afghan civilians injured. At least two Afghan university students were killed by insurgents during the Taliban assault in Gardez, local residents said.

The Afghan government said at least 17 insurgents were killed and a dozen suspects were captured on Sunday. Most of the fighting in Kabul was done by the Afghan troops.

Last week, a spokesman for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Kabul said that there was no intelligence to indicate the insurgency was planning a complex attack. Instead, German Brig. Gen. Carsten Jacobson told Reuters the insurgency was focusing on smaller attacks. Mr. Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said Sunday's attacks were a pointed retort.

U.S. officials hailed the response of Afghan security forces, describing the outcome of the fighting as a sign of progress.

"I am enormously proud of how quickly Afghan security forces responded to today's attacks in Kabul," said U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, the coalition commander. "They were on scene immediately, well-led and well-coordinated. They integrated their efforts, helped protect their fellow citizens and largely kept the insurgents contained."

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Not all the Afghans, however, saw the Afghan response as a success, especially as much of the capital city remained paralyzed by the violence.

Wazhma Frogh, a women's activist and executive director of a new think tank called the Research Institute for Women, Peace and Security, said Afghan police recklessly fired over the heads of civilians to disperse people in the early minutes of the attack.

"I could feel the heat, the fire of the bullets whizzing over my head," said Ms. Frogh, who heard Afghan police officers at checkpoints joking about where to hide as the attack intensified. "Is this what transition is all about?" she asked.

While U.S. officials praised the Afghan response, President Hamid Karzai made no public appearances and issued no statements about the pitched battle that raged in Kabul.

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Kabul police fight back Sunday amid the largest assault on the capital since the ouster of the Taliban more than a decade ago.
Associated Press

As the first sounds of explosions ripped through the capital early on Sunday, Afghans rushed for shelter and the U.S. Embassy's "duck and cover" alarm echoed through the diplomatic neighborhood that appeared to be the hardest hit.

As the militants stormed the Kabul buildings, insurgents in three other provinces staged near-simultaneous attacks on U.S. military bases and Afghan government compounds.

The most serious attack in the capital targeted the city's diplomatic quarter, where militants commandeered an unfinished, seven-story building overlooking embassies and U.S. military bases.

From the building, insurgents fired rockets that exploded in the areas of the British, German, Japanese and Canadian embassies. They kept Afghan officials at bay for hours by wounding the occasional police officer with well-placed sniper shots. The insurgents used the same tactic in September, when they fired rockets at the U.S. Embassy and central Kabul from an unfinished building.

Strawberry and apple carts were abandoned in the streets below the high-rise. Shattered cars and a sport-utility vehicle with its doors flung open sat on the road.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul said on Sunday that its staff was on lockdown as the attacks unfolded and that all of its personnel were accounted for and unhurt. U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said all British Embassy staffers were safe.

On the other side of town, insurgents stormed another construction site and started firing on the Afghan Parliament compound and nearby Russian Embassy.

At least two lawmakers, including the deputy speaker of the lower house, grabbed machine guns and climbed to the roof as they tried to repel the attack.

"If they are attacking the house of the nation, I have to fight them," said Lalai Hamidzai, one of the two lawmakers who fought off the attack. "We are representatives of the nation. It is the obligation of every Afghan to fight the war against terror."

As the attack began in the early afternoon, one witness reported seeing six individuals enter a building under construction across from a military base on the outskirts of Kabul, and then start firing into the compound from the building's upper floors. One Afghan army soldier reported seeing smoke rising from the base.

In Jalalabad, suicide bombers staged two attacks aimed at the U.S. military: In one, Afghan forces targeted an SUV with four suicide bombers near the military airport, detonating the vehicle before it could cause more-serious damage. A second targeted another base, causing some coalition and Afghan casualties, according to a Western official in Kabul.

In Gardez, local officials said, the U.S.-led military coalition targeted a university building where insurgents were holed up. Coalition helicopters and jets pounded the building and reduced it to rubble, according to local officials.

Yusaf Khan, a Paktia University student who said he witnessed the Gardez airstrikes, said 28 Afghan civilians, including women and children, were wounded in the coalition attack. A spokesman for the U.S.-led military coalition said there were no reports of civilian casualties caused by the airstrikes.

In Pul-i-Alam, officials said four suicide bombers hit a school and a four more targeted a U.S. military base.

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